The Common Pheasant 77 
centre being marked with buff and black, and the yellowish quill down to middle forming 
a sharp line. Back, rump, and upper tail-coverts, maroon-red, suffused with purple- 
lake. A few buff streaks on the back close to the scapulars. Wing coverts, sandy- 
brown with a few red-maroon feathers below the end of the scapulars. Primaries, 
greyish brown, with sandy spots in the first half of their length. Belly, mixed dark 
brown and rufous. Tail, arched, long, and tapering of eighteen feathers, yellowish 
brown, with narrow bars of black, the outer feathers being much vermiculated with 
black ; the sides of the tail feathers are a rich red-maroon glossed with purple lake. 
Legs and feet, grey, tinged with brown ; spur, dark brown, and about a quarter of 
an inch to half an inch long. Length, 37.5 in. to 40 in.; wing, 10. 1 in.; tail, 
21.2 in.; tarsus, 2.8 in.; weight, 3-J to 4 lbs.; exceptional birds of 4^ lbs. are often 
observed. The largest on record is of one noted in the Field (vol. xiv. p. 179). It 
was killed at Ganton, and is said to have been weighed by two persons as 1 oz. 
less than 6 lbs. 
Adult Female. — General colour, sandy brown, barred, with black ; feathers of the neck 
edged with black, suffused with metallic purple or green ; mantle, dark chestnut, the broad 
black hoops shot with purple ; scapulars, russet-brown, with black centre-edges sandy 
brown ; centre quill, sandy yellow ; tail, reddish brown, broadly barred with black on the 
middle feathers, and finely vermiculated with black on the outer ones. Chest and lower 
parts, sandy brown ; feet and toes, yellowish brown. Length, 24.5 in. ; wing, 8.6 in. ; tail, 
1 1.5 in. , tarsus, 2.4 in. ; weight, 2| to 3^ lbs. 
Distribution. — The remains of Pheasants have been discovered in the Pliocene beds 
of Pikerni, and in Miocene deposits at CEmingen and Allier, and on this the argument is 
based that the Pheasant was originally indigenous in Europe. It is almost impossible to 
define the true range of the Common Pheasant,' since at various periods it has been intro- 
duced into the whole of Western Europe. Till recently it was not found in Spain or 
Portugal, but now it has been brought to both of these countries in large numbers. It is 
found in a wild state in Corsica, Turkey, the Balkans, Albania, Roumelia, Greece, Asia 
Minor, and on both sides of the Caucasus, and it extends northwards as far as the Volga. 
Eastwards it abounds along the southern shores of the Caspian to Astrabad, beyond 
which the desert intervenes and separates the true form from the various sub-species which 
occur in Afghanistan, Turkestan, Mongolia, &c. Numbers are reared and breed in a wild 
state in Southern Sweden - and Denmark, but north of this it does not exist or thrive 
in freedom. In the New World, both in America and Canada, the Common Pheasant 
and its various sub-species is becoming annually more popular. At the present time 
a few Canadian proprietors have met with success in rearing the birds between Toronto 
and Ottawa, whilst in the neighbourhood of Vancouver and Vancouver Island the species 
is well established in a wild state. 3 A few rich Americans have Pheasant shooting in 
the Eastern States of America, and there is a growing industry in rearing Pheasants in 
the west, with Denver as its headquarters. The dry climate and abundance of insect 
1 A tradition exists that the generic and specific name is derived from its introduction from the Colchian Phasis (now called 
the Rion), which flows into the Black Sea near Poti. 
- In Baron Oscar Dickson's Island of Wisingso, in the Wetter Lakes 1 548 Pheasants were killed in two days in 1893. 
3 A resident near Duncans, Vancouver Island, told me he had shot 200 wild Pheasants in a season, and I saw many young 
birds there in the summer of 1908. 
